Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 39540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 198(@200wpm)___ 158(@250wpm)___ 132(@300wpm)
“I’m so sorry.” I sobbed against his shoulder where I’d buried my face. “I appreciate you c-coming for me, but I’m s-sorry you h-had t-to.”
“None of this is your fault, Pippa. Understand? None of it.”
“But you’re angry at Knuckles because he sent you after me.”
“He did and I am angry, but not at him. Certainly not at you.”
I breathed out another small sob. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for getting me out of there.”
He grunted and opened the bottle of water before giving it to me. “Drink up.” The man simply could not help but be in charge. In any other situation, I might have smiled. He tugged a thermal blanket from his pack and draped it around my body. Then his arms tightened around me and the blanket and he sighed, his chin resting on top of my head. “Just rest if you can. The girls’ll get you something to eat and help you clean up when we get to the clubhouse. Then you can rest. I’ll be watching over you the whole time. You’re safe now, Pippa. I swear it.”
I had no idea why I believed this man, but I did. I didn’t even know his name, but he was being kind. Maybe it made me stupid to trust him so completely, but one second I felt my body relax into his embrace, the next… nothing.
Chapter Two
Gunnar
“She’s out.” I told the contact Knuckles had given for me to get a message to the other man.
“Condition?”
“Banged up and likely drugged, but she’s coherent. Passed out when we got underway.”
“I want a detailed list of her injuries.”
That got my attention, but I knew better than to ask now. The convo had to be short and to the point. “Copy that.” Then I disconnected the call.
The woman in my arms was nothing like what I’d expected. And I’d expected quite a lot. There was a palpable gentleness about her I’d never associated with Knuckles. Despite her nature, she fought when she had to. I got the feeling I was gonna lose my shit when I found out all she went through. Yet, despite her trauma, she could still fall asleep in my arms.
I was under no illusion that all the shit Knuckles spouted in prison about him wanting me to take care of his daughter was the only reason he chose me for this task. Knuckles wasn’t a complete monster, but he wasn’t above using whomever he had to, including family, to get what he wanted. Unfortunately for him, I was going to ignore his duplicity and keep his daughter, and there wasn’t a Goddamned thing he could do about it.
We rolled into the Bones MC compound an hour later. I’d already been here before heading to Pippa, but I’d come in secret. Scout and Goose, a couple of guys in Bones I’d known as a kid, had helped me get in and get the package Knuckles had sent for me. I’d left and pored over the information he’d sent in a hotel room for two days before calling Torpedo. Much as I wanted my brothers to help me, I wasn’t ready to face them. Especially while bringing something like this to their door. Torpedo had sent two of his men and the Humvee to help me with this mission. Chains and Hawk had proven to be solid all the way around, offering their military insight to my brute force approach. I’d soaked up the knowledge, seeing it as a critical skill I was sorely lacking. I could learn. I’d just have to not be too proud to ask for help. In the end, we came up with a good entry and exit strategy that had worked perfectly.
Pippa hadn’t moved but was breathing steadily and easily. One small hand curled into the material of my shirt, and I covered it with my own. This was the woman I was going to make my old lady. She didn’t know me. I didn’t know her. But somehow, I was going to make this happen.
The second we stopped in front of the clubhouse, my adopted brother, Ice, opened the door and held it for me. I stepped out with Pippa cradled against my chest, sound asleep. My other adopted brother, Cyclone, moved close to us and brushed a hank of dirty hair away from her eyes where it had fallen. “I’ve got Mama waitin’ for you, Gunnar. She’ll take care of your girl.”
I nodded my thanks, then turned back to Ice. “What do you know about an MC called Fire and Steel?”
Ice frowned. “Bad lot, that bunch. Pretty sure the members Torpedo and Bohannon didn’t kill in Kiss of Death migrated this way. Most of them moved on northward, but a few settled near Richmond. Outside our territory, but when you called with this” -- he indicated Pippa – “we started digging. Data, Zora, and Suzie are still investigating, but there’s no doubt they’re trafficking.”